- A federal court judge has dismissed a lawsuit against BASD and its former leader
- The parties appear to have come to a settlement
- The lawsuit was filed by a high school assistant principal in April
BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Former Bethlehem Area schools Superintendent Joe Roy and the school district have settled a lawsuit against them brought by Liberty High School Assistant Principal Antonio Traca.
Judge Edward Smith of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning the lawsuit cannot be refiled.
The parties have 90 days to finalize the settlement agreement.
However, Smith added that he may vacate or strike it from the record if there's a good reason to do so within the three-month period.
Traca filed a civil rights lawsuit in April claiming Roy punched him in the chest and cursed at him during an Easton-Liberty high school football game on Oct. 14, 2022, as Traca tried to break up a fight among students.
The district's attorney, John Freund, said in an emailed statement Tuesday that "after the federal court dismissed Mr. Traca's complaint, the school district and its insurers made an economic decision to end the case rather than have the litigation protracted."
Smith dismissed the initial complaint in mid-August, but he allowed Traca’s legal team to file an amended complaint before Aug. 30, which had similar arguments to the original filing.
Traca's head lawyer George Kounoupis said he disputed Freund's claim that the complaint had been dismissed, saying the judge was still considering Traca's constitutional claims when the case settled. The court docket shows the district had a motion to dismiss pending from earlier this month.
Traca's lawyers argued Roy touching him constituted a seizure of his person, which violated his Fourth and 14th Amendment rights.
In a July court hearing, Freund described Roy as shoving or pushing Traca. He said Roy may have displayed “overzealousness or thoughtlessness, but certainly not malicious or sadistic [actions].”
The school district and Roy disputed that the retired superintendent reasonably foresaw that the “brief touching” of Traca would violate his civil rights or that Roy intentionally planned to restrain him in a way to cause a seizure.
Kounoupis had said they would consider appealing to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals if they lost at the district level.
The school board hired retired Judge Emil Giordano to do an independent investigation of the incident late last year. The board approved paying him $495 an hour, for a total of about $12,000 in taxpayer funding.
The findings, delivered in February, were kept secret from the public.
Roy, who led Bethlehem schools for 13 years, announced his retirement in March and worked his last day in July. He has said his retirement was not related to the allegations.
